Lilya 4-Ever

Synopsis:

16 year-old Lilya lives in a poor and dreary suburb somewhere in the former Soviet Union. She dreams of a better life. Her mother has moved to the States with a new man and Lilya is waiting to be sent for.

When no letters or money arrive from her mother, it becomes obvious that Lilya has been abandoned. She’s forced to move into a tiny, run-down flat with no electricity or heating. Heartbroken and without money, Lilya’s situation becomes desperate. Her only friend is the 11 year-old boy Volodya, who sometimes is allowed to sleep on her sofa. They hang around together and fantasise to make life a little easier.

One day, hope arrives when Lilya falls in love with Andrei. He asks her to follow him to Sweden to start a new life. Little Volodya is jealous and suspicious - but Lilya packs her bags. Suddenly she's sitting on a plane bound for Sweden not knowing what will happen next…

My Thoughts:

This is a very heavy-hearted film. I need to use “沉重” to describe it. There's so much hopelessness，so much helplessness and so much 无可奈何-ness, that my heart just sank deeper and deeper as the story unfolded.

I can only say, I'm so so so very glad that I wasn't born into that part of the world, into that kind of environment.

The reviewer in I-S Magazine wrote: "If you're not in tears by the time the end credits roll, nothing will move you." Hmmm... I didn't shed a single tear leh, does it mean that I'm hard-hearted and cold-blooded? But I must say, this is the saddest film of the year so far, and possibly the saddest that I have ever seen. The message will stay with me for a long time.

Too lazy to write a detailed review. Here's a combi of a few which, together, will make up what is rather close to my own sentiments:

Movie Review:

Source: http://www.moviexclusive.com/review/lilya/lilya4ever.htm

Watching this film about the dejected youths from the former Soviet bloc, and in particular, the tale of one young girl who prostitutes herself, is hard to grapple with. You feel the sense of isolation, the appeal for help, the desperation; you want to reach out but you somehow can't, and this sense of inability overwhelms you as the cycle continues.

The film begins with really blaring loud music shutting out the cries of a bewildered girl as a shaky camera follows behind, before we are brought back 3 months to where it all began. Lilya is a 16 year old girl who gets abandoned by her single parent mother in order to follow her boyfriend to America. Lilya was part of the emigration plan, but at the last moment, finds out the truth behind the lies.

As with any teenager, without proper parental guidance, she gets involved with undesirable characters - smoking, drinking, even sniffing glue, and even had her best friend betray her integrity. Her aunt cheats her out of her lush apartment in exchange for a dinghy, smelly flat, and soon, she finds herself in dire straits as she has no money, and no job.

Desperate, she pimps herself at a nightclub she regulars, and makes money by selling her body. It's a shame really, that a beautiful teenage girl had to resort to this to make ends meet. You wonder about underaged sex, and the predators all round waiting to pounce, but then again, wonder that she is fully aware of her actions, and consented to having do this.

While you might come to terms with the first act - willing seller, willing buyer, cynically see it as a market transaction, the second act brings a separate "how about" side, which will, and should, incense every moral fibre in you. Befriended by Andrei, she soon falls in love with him, and is smitten by his plans for them to migrate to Sweden to live a better life. He promised a job and a place to stay. Has she finally met her knight in shining armour, who is whisking her away to his castle on a white horse?

Unfortunately, the one true angel in her life, is a young boy called Volodya. They share similar backgrounds in having their family members abandoning them, and find themselves also being the outcasts amongst their peers. They click well, because of Volodya's easy going nature, and their sharing of dreams to make it out of the slums one day.

With Andrei, Volodya smells a rat, and warns Lilya time and time again that nothing is as good as it seems. But love does blind oneself sometimes, and Lilya is to suffer the heartbreak of another unfulfilled vow. The audience too, will feel the danger looming, but can do absolutely nothing as Lilya reacts naively.

No doubt that Lilya is no angel herself, but no teen deserves the second act. While nothing too explicit is shown on screen, it is still not easy watching them. The movie doesn't shove the message down your throat with great might, it gets played out in such a straight manner, you can't help but to sit up and realize it, that it is just not right.

The film's most confronting scenes are in Sweden, where Lilya is beaten, repeatedly raped and kept under lock and key. Moodysson rarely shows this happening to her; instead, he makes you feel like it's happening to you, by putting the camera in her position. After the tenth face of some nameless man looms over you, pounding away with no visible emotion, the sense of what her life has become is hard to bear.
(http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/08/1060145858029.html)

Moodysson even has us wishing that she’ll return to her own dirty town. (http://www.culturevulture.net/Movies6/Lilya.htm)

Kudos must go to Oksana Akinshina, the actress playing Lilya, for bringing out the various emotions, and subtly giving Lilya a sense of vulnerability beneath her tough exterior. Artyom Bogucharsky, who plays Volodya, deserves mention too, for being that rational young lad and exuding that wise demeanour for an 11 year old.

Featured in various film festivals worldwide, Lilya 4-ever is a grim reminder about the plights of children exploited in prostitution, that each have a story to their current misery, which should not be used to have them engaged in acts against their wishes. Their dreams and aspirations for leading a better life, should not be used as baits and having them turned into broken promises.

Quotable Quote:

Volodya: I killed myself and went to heaven and yeah, it's really good in heaven. But I regret it, 'cause I wanted to live on earth a little longer. You remain dead for all eternity, but you're alive only for a brief moment.